EDWARDS: Update on the spent reactor fuel situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Site
----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 4:07 PM
Subject: Update on the spent reactor fuel situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Site
Background:
Here [below] is an authoritative description of the radioactive inventory in the spent fuel pools at Fukushima Dai-ichi by Robert Alvarez, with special emphasis on the precarious spent fuel pool of reactor Unit #4.
Irradiated nuclear fuel, also called "spent fuel", is extraordinarily radioactive. An unprotected human being one metre away from a single irradiated fuel assembly, freshly removed from the core of an operating nuclear reactor, would receive a lethal dose of radiation within seconds, and would be dead within days.
Even so, that blast of penetrating radiation (gamma rays) given off by each spent fuel assembly pales into insignificance compared with the enormous inventory of radioactive poisons contained in each of these irradiated fuel assemblies. If those materials are released into the environment and find their way into the bodies of living things through inhalation, ingestion or absorption, they can trigger a large variety of cancers, blood diseases, and damage to genetic material which can be transmitted to future generations. This can happen far away from the reactors if the radioactive materials are disseminated.
At the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, the molten cores of units 1, 2 and 3, are matters of great long-term concern. But the radioactive inventory of all the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in the individual spent fuel pools of the six reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi, as well as the common fuel pool that is used for the longer-term storage of irradiated fuel elements from all six reactors, is far greater and even more problematic than the molten cores -- in terms of potential offsite consequences.
The reasons for this are: (1) each pool contains the irradiated fuel from several years of operation, making for an extremely large radioactive inventory; (2) these pools are not enclosed within a strong containment structure similar to the structures that enclose the cores of the reactors; (3) several of these pools are completely open to the atmosphere since the roofs and outer walls of the buildings have been demolished by powerful explosions; (4) the individual pools are at an elevation of about 100 feet [30 metres] and could possibly topple or collapse as a result of structural damage coupled with another powerful earthquake; (5) if the water from these pools is drained for any reason, the blast of penetrating radiation from the unshielded irradiated fuel assemblies inside the pool would prevent human access for a couple of hundred metres in all directions; (6) the lack of cooling water will result in overheating of the fuel which can cause melting and even burning of their zirconium metal coating [called cladding], sending clouds of radioactive materials skyward.
Please note that the overheating of the fuel is caused by the intense radioactivity of the materials in the irradiated fuel assemblies, and is not necessarily caused by a resumption of the nuclear chain reaction that was responsible for creating these materials in the first place.
Gordon Edwards, President
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
www.ccnr.org
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From: Robert Alvarez <kitbob@erols.com >
Date: March 31, 2012 12:57:22 PM EDT (CA)
Dear All --
Based on recent information provided at the Japanese government's public hearing of the Budgetary Committee of the House of Councilors, and my Japanese friends, reactor No. 4 contains 1,231 irradiated spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies in the pool of Reactor No. 4.
The pool is structurally damaged, has leaked and is exposed to the elements [i.e. the atmosphere]. The infrastructure to safely remove it [i.e. irradiated spent fuel from the pool] has been destroyed.
The SNF in Pool No. 4 contains about 100+ million curies [MCi] of long-lived radioactive elements. Roughly 40% [of that] or 40 MCi is cesium-137 [Cs-137].
If another earthquake or other event were to cause the water to drain, it could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 40 times the amount [of radioactivity] estimated by the National Commission on Radiation Protection to have been released at Chernobyl (1.6 million curies). The Dai-Ichi accident, according to Japanese authorities has so far released ~ 1 million curies.
There appears to be a total of 11,138 spent fuel assemblies stored at the Dai-Ichi site. There are 6,530 assemblies in a common pool with nearly all the rest [in pools] amidst the reactor ruins. A small amount [of irradiated spent nuclear fuel] is contained in dry casks.
Roughly 982 million curies of the total SNF inventory are from cesium-137. This is about 145 percent more than estimated to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, the Chernobyl accident, and world-wide reprocessing plants (the grand total amounting to ~270 million curies or one million million million [1.0E+18] Becquerels.)
It's important for the public to understand that nuclear power plants that have been operating for decades have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet. Spent fuel pools at boiling water reactors are particularly of concern, because they are about 100 feet above ground and do not have "defense in depth" protection. [By contrast,] despite the enormous destruction caused at the Dai-ichi site, the dry spent fuel storage casks were unscathed.
Best,
Bob
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Fukushima reactor shows radiation levels much higher than thought
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/28/
fukushima-reactor-radiation-levels >
Damage from disaster so severe that clean-up expected to take decades, according to latest examination of nuclear plant
The Guardian, Associated Press, March 28, 2012
One of Japan's crippled nuclear reactors still has fatally high radiation levels and much less water to cool it than officials estimated, according
to an internal examination that renews doubts about the plant's stability.
A tool equipped with a tiny video camera, a thermometer, a dosimeter and a water gauge was used to assess damage inside the number two
reactor's containment chamber for the second time since the tsunami swept into the Fukushima Daiichi plant, a year ago.
The data shows the damage from the disaster is so severe the plant operator will have to develop special equipment and technology to tolerate the harsh environment, and decommission the plant. The process is expected to last decades.
The other two reactors that had meltdowns could be in even worse shape. The number two reactor is the only one officials have been able to closely examine so far.
Tuesday's examination, with an industrial endoscope, detected radiation levels up to 10 times the fatal dose inside the chamber.
Plant officials previously said more than half of the melted fuel had breached the core and dropped to the floor of the primary containment vessel, some of it splashing against the wall or the floor. [ . . . ]
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Excellent Youtube video of interview with Kevin Kamps (Beyond Nuclear):
Fukushima...radiation so high - even robots not safe
<
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwO3MDfUeRo >
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Tokyo Soil Samples Would Be Considered Nuclear Waste In The US
<
http://www.fairewinds.com/content/
tokyo-soil-samples-would-be-considered-nuclear-waste-us >
4:27-minute Arnie Gundersen YouTube here
While traveling in Japan several weeks ago, Fairewinds’ Arnie Gundersen took soil samples in Tokyo public parks, playgrounds, and rooftop gardens. All the samples would be considered nuclear waste if found here in the US. This level of contamination is currently being discovered throughout Japan. At the US NRC Regulatory Information Conference in Washington, DC March 13 to March 15, the NRC's Chairman, Dr. Gregory Jaczko emphasized his concern that the NRC and the nuclear industry presently do not consider the costs of mass evacuations and radioactive contamination in their cost benefit analysis used to license nuclear power plants. Furthermore, Fairewinds believes that evacuation costs near a US nuclear plant could easily exceed one trillion dollars and contaminated land would be uninhabitable for generations.
[BEGIN: RIC Conference Footage]
NRC Chairman Jaczko: The events at Fukushima reinforce that any nuclear accident with public health and safety or environmental consequences of that magnitude, is inherently unacceptable. But we focussed on the radiological consequences of this event. I believe we cannot ignore the large social and economic consequences such an event poses to any country with a nuclear facility that deals with such a crisis.
In Japan, more than 90,000 people remain displaced from their homes and land, with some having no prospect for a return to their previous lifestyle in the foreseeable future. While not easy to characterize, these are significant hardships on these people and they are inherently unacceptable. So as we look to the future and we look in a proactive way, we ultimately will have to address the issue of how do we deal with nuclear events that lead to significant land contamination. And displacement, perhaps permanently, of people from their homes and their livelihoods and their communities.
[END: RIC Conference Footage]
Arnie Gundersen: What you have just heard was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's chairman, Gregory Jaczko, saying that the NRC does not take in to account mass evacuations and people not getting back on their land for centuries when it does a cost benefit analysis as to whether or not a nuclear plant should be licensed.
I am Arnie Gundersen from Fairewinds and today I am at the Regulatory Information Conference put on by the NRC in Washington D.C.
So today, I am in Washington D.C. Couple of weeks ago though, I was in Tokyo and when I was in Tokyo, I took some samples. Now, I did not look for the highest radiation spot. I just went around with five plastic bags and when I found an area, I just scooped up some dirt and put it in a bag. One of those samples was from a crack in the sidewalk. Another one of those samples was from a children's playground that had been previously decontaminated. Another sample had come from some moss on the side of the road. Another sample came from the roof of an office building that I was at. And the last sample was right across the street from the main judicial center in downtown Tokyo. I brought those samples back, declared them through Customs, and sent them to the lab. And the lab determined that ALL of them would be qualified as radioactive waste here in the United States and would have to be shipped to Texas to be disposed of.
Now think about the ramifications for the nation's capital, whether it is Tokyo or the United States. How would you like it if you went to pick your flowers and were kneeling in radioactive waste? That is what is happening in Tokyo now. And I think that is the point that Chairman Jaczko was trying to make. When the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does it's cost benefit analyses now, it does not take into account the cost to society if you have to evacuate for generations or if you have to move 100,000 people, perhaps forever.
There is a hundred miles between us and a dozen nuclear power plants here in Washington D.C. Fukushima was almost 200 miles away from Tokyo, and yet Tokyo soil in some places, the ones I just happened to find, would qualify as radioactive waste here in the United States.
How would we feel if our nation's capital were contaminated to that degree? So I agree with Chairman Jaczko, new nukes and old nukes that are being re-licensed should include as a cost in their analysis what we have learned to be happening in Tokyo and in Japan.
Thank you very much and I will keep you informed.
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MUCH MORE INFO:
http://www.fairewinds.com/